Here Are All of Alibaba’s 27 Partners

At the heart of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba is a nebulous band of fellows dubbed the “Alibaba Partnership,” whose job is to “embody and promote our mission vision and values,” according to the company’s IPO filing, as well as nominate a majority of the company’s directors.

It’s that last duty that makes the Alibaba Partnership of great interest and significance to investors. On Monday, in an amended IPO filing, Alibaba for the first time released the names of all 27 partners.

But there’s no set number of partners; the partnership “rejuvenates itself” through admission of new members every year, the filing says. To be eligible for election, partners must show high personal integrity, have worked for Alibaba or an affiliate for at least five years, have a track record of “contribution” and be a “culture carrier” — or someone who acts in accordance with Alibaba’s values.

All partners are also required to have a “meaningful level of equity interests” in the company, the filing says, without specifying how much that is.

So who are these people?

Twenty-two are Alibaba executives, four are executives of Alibaba’s payment affiliate and the last an executive at a logistics joint venture. Here are six of the most prominent members — five of whom also comprise the powerful “partnership committee,” the group responsible for running elections and allocating bonuses to partners.

Jack Ma – Executive Chairman

Ma founded Alibaba in 1999 in his apartment in Hangzhou, China, and since May 2013 has served as executive chairman. From 1999 through May 2013, Ma was CEO and Chairman of Alibaba. With an estimated net worth of $4.05 billion, Ma ranked 29th on the 2013 Hurun Rich List of China’s wealthiest people, compiled by the Shanghai-based research group Hurun Report. Member of the partnership committee.

Joseph Tsai – Executive Vice-Chairman

Tsai joined Alibaba in 1999 as a member of the founding team and has been executive vice-chairman since May 2013. He was previously chief financial officer. Prior to Alibaba, Tsai worked in Hong Kong for Investor AB, the main investment vehicle of Sweden’s Wallenberg family. He was also vice president and general counsel of New York-based management-buyout firm Rosecliff. From 1990 to 1993, he was an attorney at New York-based law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. Member of the partnership committee.

Jonathan Lu – Chief Executive

Lu joined Alibaba in 2000 and replaced Mr. Ma in 2013 as CEO of Alibaba. Prior to his role as CEO, he was chief data officer and also oversaw Alibaba’s mobile operating system division. He was chief executive of then-listed business-to-business e-commerce site Alibaba.com from February 2011 until it went private in 2012. He was also CEO of Alibaba’s consumer shopping site Taobao from January 2010 to June 2011. In 2004, he led a team to establish Alibaba’s payment affiliate, Alipay. Member of the partnership committee.

Maggie Wu – Chief Financial Officer

Wu has been chief financial officer of Alibaba since May 2013 and was deputy financial chief from October 2011 to May 2013. She joined Alibaba in July 2007 as chief financial officer of Alibaba.com and was responsible for setting up Alibaba.com’s financial systems. Prior to Alibaba, Wu was an audit partner at KPMG in Beijing and was responsible for auditing large-cap Chinese companies.

Peng was named CEO of Alibaba’s Small and Micro Financial Services Group, which controls the Alipay online payments affiliate, in March 2013. She is in charge of innovation in financial services. One of the 18 founders of Alibaba, Peng also served in other senior roles including marketing and customer services, chief executive of Alipay and “chief people officer,” formulating human-resource strategies. Member of the partnership committee.

Ming Zeng – Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy

Zeng joined Alibaba in 2008 as an executive in charge of strategy and served as acting president of Yahoo’s China operations from November 2006 to December 2007.